[Introduced January 8, 2014; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

____________

A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-10 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating generally to school personnel; and
requiring that personal leave for illness and other causes for
employees of county boards shall accrue monthly.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That §18A-4-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

(1) At the beginning of the employment term, Any full-time
employee of a county board is entitled annuallyto accrueto at
least one and one-half days personal leave for each employment month
or major fraction thereof in the employee's employment term.
Personal leave is accrued at the end of each pay period based on a
ten month pay calendar or on the last workday for separating
employees. Unused leave shall be accumulative without limitation
and is transferable within the state. A change in job assignment
during the school year does not affect the employee's rights or
benefits.

(2) A regular full-time employee who is absent from assigned
duties due to accident, sickness, death in the immediate family, or
life threatening illness of the employee's spouse, parents or child,
or other cause authorized or approved by the board, shall be paid
the full salary from his or her regular budgeted salary
appropriation during the period which the employee is absent, but
not to exceed the total amount of leave to which the employee has
accrued.is entitled.

(3) Each employee is permitted to use three days of leave
annually without regard to the cause for the absence. Personal
leave without cause may not be used on consecutive work days unless
authorized or approved by the employee's principal or immediate
supervisor, as appropriate. The employee shall give notice of leave
without cause to the principal or immediate supervisor at least
twenty-four hours in advance, except that in the case of sudden and
unexpected circumstances, notice shall be given as soon as
reasonably practicable. The principal or immediate supervisor may
deny use of the day if, at the time notice is given, either fifteen
percent of the employees or three employees, whichever is greater,
under the supervision of the principal or immediate supervisor, have
previously given notice of their intention to use that day for
leave. Personal leave may not be used in connection with a
concerted work stoppage or strike. Where the cause for leave
originated prior to the beginning of the employment term, the
employee shall be paid for time lost after the start of the
employment term, but not to exceed the total amount of leave the
employee has accrued.If an employee uses personal leave which the
employee has not yet accumulated on a monthly basis and subsequently
leaves the employment, the employee is required to reimburse the
board for the salary or wages paid for the unaccumulated leave.

(4) The state board shall maintain a rule to restrict the
payment of personal leave benefits and the charging of personal
leave time used to an employee receiving a workers' compensation
benefit from a claim filed against and billed to the county board
by which the person is employed. If an employee is awarded this
benefit, the employee shall receive personal leave compensation only
to the extent the compensation is required, when added to the
workers' compensation benefit, to equal the amount of compensation
regularly paid the employee. If personal leave compensation equal
to the employee's regular pay is paid prior to the award of the
workers' compensation benefit, the amount which, when added to the
benefit, is in excess of the employee's regular pay shall be
deducted from the employee's subsequent pay. The employee's accrued
personal leave days shall be charged only for such days as equal the
amount of personal leave compensation required to compensate the
employee at the employee's regular rate of pay.

(5) The county board may establish reasonable rules for
reporting and verification of absences for cause. If any error in
reporting absences occurs, the county board may make necessary
salary adjustments:

(A) In the next pay after the employee has returned to duty;
or

(B) In the final pay if the absence occurs during the last
month of the employment term.

(b) Leave Banks.

(1) Each county board shall establish a personal leave bank
that is available to all school personnel. The board may establish
joint or separate banks for professional personnel and school
service personnel. Each employee may contribute up to two days of
personal leave per school year. An employee may not be coerced or
compelled to contribute to a personal leave bank.

(2) The personal leave bank shall be established and operated
pursuant to a rule adopted by the county board. The rule:

(A) May limit the maximum number of days used by an employee;

(B) Shall limit the use of leave bank days to an active
employee with fewer than five days accumulated personal leave who
is absent from work due to accident or illness of the employee; and

(C) Shall prohibit the use of days to:

(I) Qualify for or add to service for any retirement system
administered by the state; or

(I) Is deducted from the number of personal leave days to which
the donor employee is entitled by this section;

(ii) Is not deducted from the personal leave days without cause
to which a donor employee is entitled if sufficient general personal
leave days are otherwise available to the donor employee;

(iii) Is credited to the receiving employee as one full
personal leave day;

(iv) May not be credited for more or less than a full day by
calculating the value of the leave according to the hourly wage of
each employee; and

(v) May be used only for an absence due to the purpose for
which the leave was transferred. Any transferred days remaining
when the catastrophic medical emergency ends revert back to the
leave bank.

(3) The administration, subject to county board approval, may
use its discretion as to the need for a substitute where limited
absence may prevail, when an allowable absence does not:

(I) Directly affect the instruction of the students; or

(ii) Require a substitute employee because of the nature of the
work and the duration of the cause for the absence.

(4) If funds in any fiscal year, including transfers, are
insufficient to pay the full cost of substitutes for meeting the
provisions of this section, the remainder shall be paid on or before
August 31 from the budget of the next fiscal year.

(5) A county board may supplement the leave provisions in any
manner it considers advisable in accordance with applicable rules
of the state board and the provisions of this chapter and chapter
eighteen of this code.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that full-time
employees of county boards of education accrue personal leave on a
monthly basis, with days accrued at the end of each pay period, and
may only use personal leave up to the amount actually accrued.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.